Back in the spring I entered a blog post about the FTC getting involved with photocopier hard drive privacy issues. The article started off saying: “Those photocopies of your bottom, which you thought would be an original and funny statement of the contents of your soul during the office Christmas party, have started to worry the US Federal Trade Commission.”

So I thought I would add a photo of someone’s photocopied butt to make the story more interesting. I found a picture of a photocopied butt on the Internet and used that for my blog post.

I started to get hits from search engines for photocopied butt, photocopied bottom, etc, and people were clicking on that image to copy it and use it.

I was really puzzled why I was getting so many hits for that photo. So I created a new blog entry, just before Christmas, and had a YouTube video on there, where a heavy man tries to photocopy his butt and the glass on the copier broke, no doubt injuring him, it was caught on an office security camera. Then I really started to get hits for that photo of a photocopied butt.

Now for the record, I have never photocopied my butt, and I fail to realize why it is so funny. I do have a sense of humor, but a photo or scan of someone’s butt? Why do people do that? Are they rebelling against the corporate environment?

Can anyone help me out? I am very curious why I get so many hits every day for that photo. Please leave a comment why you think people photocopy their butts and why it’s funny. Also why are people on the Net searching for photocopied butt photos? This is no joke, I want to get to the bottom of this. No pun intended.

Those photocopies of your bottom, which you thought would be an original and funny statement of the contents of your soul during the office Christmas party, have started to worry the US Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC is worried that the pictures at the bottom end of the market are being stored on the photocopier’s hard drive and could be used to make an ass of you.

At the moment it is just happy with issuing a warning that if you photocopy your butt on a modern copier, it’s probably still there, but it might be forced to do something about it in the future.

Modern copiers store the image on the copier’s hard drive, along with medical forms, financial documents, and all your company secrets.

Once the copiers are resold or their lease expires it is possible to lift it out and use the information.

CBS got its paws on one of these hard-drives and found “a list of targets in a major drug raid” from the Buffalo Police Narcotics Unit. It also scored Social Security numbers, medical documents, and “$40,000 in copied cheques.”

The Chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, said his agency is taking the matter quite seriously. After all, there might be a hairy posture view of Leibowitz or any one else in the FTC hanging on a notice board of the Chinese secret service, causing much mirth.

According to Leibowitz, the FTC is now “reaching out” to copier manufacturers, resellers, and retail copy and office supply stores to ensure that they are aware of the privacy risks associated with digital copiers and to determine whether they are warning their customers about these risks.

“We will work with these entities to help ensure that they provide appropriate educational materials on the subject to their clients,” he said.

The FTC said it avoids the problem internally by signing lease agreements that give the agency full ownership of the hard drives inside the copiers.

When the lease is up, the FTC will “erase and subsequently destroy these hard drives” before returning the copiers.

I have a question; Why did it take almost 9 years for the media and now Government to catch onto this security threat? Warnings were given back in 2001, and fell on deaf ears. What gives?